Our Executives Predict What’s To Come in 2018

It was a record setting cold start to 2018 but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t burning issues that IT and Business leaders need to keep watching over the next 12 months.
We asked our executives what their predictions were for 2018 and this is what they had to say.
Sven Lindemann: Centralize Payments to Control Cash Flow, Improve Compliance and Prevent Fraud “Centralization, fraud prevention and compliance are all major topics that clients are focusing on at the moment. Everyone wants to discuss these issues, and organizations are increasingly open to moving to the cloud in order to address these areas more effectively…. Increasingly we see companies wanting to approach [Payments] in a centralized way so that they can make sure they are working with the right partners, paying the right amounts and receiving the expected sums.”
Learn more about the payment challenges facing global organizations by reading Sven’s latest article in Treasury Today.
Dr. Werner Hopf: Risk and Compliance: Driving the Need for Chief Data Officers“With the impending onslaught of compliance requirements, the regulation of data will be paramount in 2018. Companies needs to be keenly aware of where they store and manage data over the residual life cycle to not only be in compliance, but - more importantly - to protect their organizations and customers from unnecessary risk and associated costs. We will see a spike in the specific need for Chief Data Officers, as this role becomes paramount and perceived as highly valuable within the enterprise.”
Read Dr. Hopf’s predictions and other data-related predictions from industry leaders at "Analytics in 2018: AI, IoT and multi-cloud, or bust", ZDNETVishal Awasthi: Robotics and RPA: Use Wisely“Robotics is here to stay, yet it is not the panacea. Robotics and RPA can offer great value to the enterprise by cutting costs, eliminating manual errors and freeing up high-value employees. However, it’s imperative to understand that there is a threshold and “dark side,” if not managed properly. For the classic rules based RPAs, if the rules get too complex, or get setup by business analysts not familiar with all the nuances of the processes, RPA can produce incorrect results and put companies at risk. This is a classic case where you gain efficiency at the cost of effectiveness. Since people put machines to higher levels of accountability compared to humans, this could be a deathblow to such systems. This problem could be even worse for the Machine Learning based Robotics systems as the Machine Learning models are notoriously opaque. Therefore companies need to be aware of both the pros and cons of RPA to ensure they’re implementing it for processes that will truly benefit from RPA – and properly balancing it with human oversight and processing.”
To find out more about Vishal’s latest thoughts on the latest technology trends on Robotics, AI, and more follow him on Twitter @vishalawBrian Shannon: Transparency and Secure Access with Blockchain “Blockchain is here and now, and it will continue to gain traction as it provides transparency to the supply chain – especially in complex supply chain industries, such as the automotive and retail industries. Blockchain securely grants access to all transactions that are taking place across the entire ecosystem. We used to think of blockchain within the context of the banking industry, yet the technology is rapidly gaining traction in the automotive and retail world. Blockchain-ready transactions is a concept we will talk more about in 2018.”
Find out more about Blockchain trends in "Predictions 2018: Why Blockchain is Ready to Break Out in the Enterprise", eWeek

It was a record setting cold start to 2018 but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t burning issues that IT and Business leaders need to keep watching over the next 12 months.

We asked our executives what their predictions were for 2018 and this is what they had to say.

Sven Lindemann: Centralize Payments to Control Cash Flow, Improve Compliance and Prevent Fraud “Centralization, fraud prevention and compliance are all major topics that clients are focusing on at the moment. Everyone wants to discuss these issues, and organizations are increasingly open to moving to the cloud in order to address these areas more effectively…. Increasingly we see companies wanting to approach [Payments] in a centralized way so that they can make sure they are working with the right partners, paying the right amounts and receiving the expected sums.”

“With the impending onslaught of compliance requirements, the regulation of data will be paramount in 2018. Companies needs to be keenly aware of where they store and manage data over the residual life cycle to not only be in compliance, but – more importantly – to protect their organizations and customers from unnecessary risk and associated costs. We will see a spike in the specific need for Chief Data Officers, as this role becomes paramount and perceived as highly valuable within the enterprise.”

“Robotics is here to stay, yet it is not the panacea. Robotics and RPA can offer great value to the enterprise by cutting costs, eliminating manual errors and freeing up high-value employees. However, it’s imperative to understand that there is a threshold and “dark side,” if not managed properly. For the classic rules based RPAs, if the rules get too complex, or get setup by business analysts not familiar with all the nuances of the processes, RPA can produce incorrect results and put companies at risk. This is a classic case where you gain efficiency at the cost of effectiveness. Since people put machines to higher levels of accountability compared to humans, this could be a deathblow to such systems. This problem could be even worse for the Machine Learning based Robotics systems as the Machine Learning models are notoriously opaque. Therefore companies need to be aware of both the pros and cons of RPA to ensure they’re implementing it for processes that will truly benefit from RPA – and properly balancing it with human oversight and processing.”

To find out more about Vishal’s latest thoughts on the latest technology trends on Robotics, AI, and more follow him on Twitter @vishalaw

Brian Shannon: Transparency and Secure Access with Blockchain “Blockchain is here and now, and it will continue to gain traction as it provides transparency to the supply chain – especially in complex supply chain industries, such as the automotive and retail industries. Blockchain securely grants access to all transactions that are taking place across the entire ecosystem. We used to think of blockchain within the context of the banking industry, yet the technology is rapidly gaining traction in the automotive and retail world. Blockchain-ready transactions is a concept we will talk more about in 2018.”